A common variation in the promoter region of interleukin-6 gene shows association with exercise performance

Skeletal muscle-derived interleukin-6 (il-6) is a pleiotropiccytokine which regulates body metabolism during strenuousphysical exercise. the effect of a potentially functional singlenucleotide polymorphism (snp) -174g/c of the il6 gene(rs1800795) promoter was examined on maximal oxygen uptake(vo2max), body mass index (bmi) and plasma il-6 levels inresponse to physical training. fifty four male military conscriptswere studied for 8 weeks during their basic training. at weeks 1,5 and 8, vo2max and anthropometrics were measured, andblood samples collected before and after acute aerobic exercise.acute exercise increased plasma il-6 in subjects with genotypecg. moreover, during the 8-week training period, a tendencyfor increased plasma il-6 was observed in subjects with thisgenotype. vo2max values increased in all genotype groups, butsubjects with genotype cg made the greatest gains in vo2max.training significantly decreased bmi only in subjects withgenotype cg. our findings suggest that the allele c may havean effect on plasma il-6 response to acute exercise in healthymale subjects. exercise training has a favourable effect onvo2max and bmi, with the most prominent effects in subjectswith genotype cg. thus we conclude that this snp may accountfor individual response to exercise training.